We are going to put in a new board today which will have two sections -- one for member reviews of rubs, sauces, brines, marinades, etc and the second which will be for member reviews of products used with or on your pit (thermometers, monitoring systems, pellets, grates, mats, covers, etc).  Members are not allowed to do testing or reviews of any pit.

There will be some rules to follow.  I will post them in this section and they will also be posted in the review board.  The rules are there for consistency in reviews, but also to help keep people focused on the purpose of the review and to help keep in mind that we want the reviews to be things of substance that your fellow members and viewing public find useful.  This will be a separate board, so your review is not going to just sink to the bottom of the general discussion board, but will be accessible to all.

We hope reviewers will find it an enjoyable experience and readers will find useful and insightful formation.

Rules for Posting Reviews of Rubs, Sauces, Marinades, Brines

We understand that a review of any of these types of products is, by its nature, subjective, and we are not trying to remove that element from the review.  But we also expect something of a higher quality than the average yelp review (“really great sauce”, “boy, I loved this rub”).  You will need to articulate what you like and don’t like about the product.  You can identify the product by name, but no links, videos or you tubes.  This is so this section does not become commercialized, but instead remains a board of our members’ thoughts and opinions. 
We reserve the right to take the opinion down if:  (1) we feel that it has been overly commercialized or placed in the board for an inappropriate reason; (2) it appears to be nothing but “bashing” or alternatively “fanboy praise” for a product.  We are looking for thoughtful substance.  It does not need to be long or windy, but it does need to show some reflection and effort.
We would like this general format to be followed so there is some consistency between reviews:

1.  Name of product
2.  Purpose of the product – i.e. rub, dry marinade, soak, sauce, brine, does it have dual functions, etc.
3.  Pros and cons of product.  This section is meant to help inform other members and the public. For example on a sauce –
pros:  nice balance of heat and sweet, can be found in most groceries stores, children really like this sauce on any meat
cons:  fairly pricey for size of bottle, very runny and doesn’t stay on meat well
(these are not meant as requirements of pros and cons, but just examples of how short the opinion/review can be for this section)
4.  Your impressions and other thoughts on the product.  Please feel free to express all thoughts in this section.  If you feel you covered it in pros and cons then skip this section. You may also wish to opine on whether the product met its purpose – i.e. it was a brine or soak, but you noticed no difference in meat prepared using the brine and meat that did not use the brine.
5.  Would you recommend this product.  This is a critical section.  We want to know if you would urge others to try or not try.  You can place caveats here if you wish (“For any person who likes some heat in a sauce, this sauce would be a great choice”), but you need to give it a yea or nay.

We hope members will participate and enjoy doing this, but we also want readers to enjoy the reviews and find them useful, so please keep that in mind.

Rules for Posting Reviews of Accessories, Gadgets and Tools

We understand that a review of any of these types of products is, by its nature, subjective, and we are not trying to remove that element from the review.  But we also expect something of a higher quality than the average yelp review (“really great thermometer”, “boy, I loved this mat”).  You will need to articulate what you like and don’t like about the product.  You can identify the product by name, but no links, videos or you tubes to manufacturers or dealers.  This is so this section does not become commercialized, but instead remains a board of our members’ thoughts and opinions.
The most important thing – you must first contact Bentley or Kristin before you post a review and advise what product you want to review and obtain approval to proceed.  If you don’t follow this step, we will take the review down.
We also reserve the right to take the review down if:  (1) we feel that it has been overly commercialized or placed on the board for an inappropriate reason; (2) it appears to be nothing but “bashing” or alternatively “fanboy praise” for a product.  We are looking for thoughtful substance.  It does not need to be long or windy, but it does need to show some reflection and effort.
We would like this general format to be followed so there is some consistency between reviews:

1.  Name of product
2.  Purpose of the product – i.e. this is a temperature monitoring system, this is a meat tenderizer, etc.
3.  Pros and cons of product.  This section is meant to help inform other members and the public. For example on a set of grates:
pros:  good weight, easy to get in and out of the pit, easy to clean
cons:  fairly pricey, don’t add grill marks
(these are not meant as requirements of pros and cons, but just examples of how short the opinion/review can be for this section)
4.  Your impressions and other thoughts on the product. Please feel free to express all thoughts in this section.  This is where you can tell the reader how you tested the product, what your results were, how you felt about whether the product met its purpose. Thought and analysis is appreciated in this section.
5.  Would you recommend this product.  This is a critical section.  We want to know if you would recommend or not recommend others to buy this product.  This is a big responsibility and is the reason we ask for thoughtful analysis.
6.  Pictures. We would like pictures, hopefully more than one.  Your personal videos are also acceptable, but no links to videos done by a manufacturer or dealer.

We hope members will participate and enjoy doing this, but we also want readers to enjoy the reviews and find them useful, so please keep that in mind.

If folks are looking for an excellent example of what we were hoping for, please read Bar-B-Lew's review https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=433.0